1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a buckwheat starch syrup prepared by liquefying and saccharifying starch from buckwheat flour, a method for preparing the buckwheat starch syrup and foods containing the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As raw materials for preparing starch syrups, various kinds of starch have been used, including corn, potato, sweet potato, tapioca, wrinkle-seeded pea, wheat, arrowroot, sago palm, rice, etc. Starch syrups are viscous, sweet materials prepared by decomposing and saccharifying the starch of these raw materials with saccharifying enzymes. They are widely used in candy products, such as caramels, drops and jellies; Japanese-style confections, such as bean jams and sweet jellies of beans; and other foods, such as jams, syrups and foods boiled down in soy sauce.
Recently, with growing attention to health in society, maltoligosaccharides, branched oligosaccharides, sugar alcohols, etc., have attracted attention from the viewpoints of growing Lactobacillus bifidus in the intestines, lowering sweetness and the number of calories, preventing tooth decay, and so forth. In order to obtain a starch syrup which significantly contains these saccharides, various investigations have been made into the kinds and combinations of enzymes to be added at the time of saccharification. However, these investigations have intended only to improve the saccharide components in starch syrups. Among the starch syrups made from the above-mentioned raw materials, no syrup is known to contain any effective component having value added. In other words, they have no characteristics in those components other than saccharides. Furthermore, with respect to raw material starch, nothing has been reported except for the above-mentioned materials which have been conventionally used.